Binance Converts Secure Asset Fund (SAFU) for Users to USDC

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Binance has converted the entirety of its emergency insurance fund for users into USDC to “enhance its reliability.”

Binance’s SAFU fund has been converted into USDC as the crypto firm looks to maintain its stability at $1 billion.

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Posted April 18, 2024 at 2:16 am EST.

Crypto exchange Binance has converted the entire balance of a pool of assets held in an emergency fund for users into Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the firm said that the decision to convert the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) into USDC would further enhance the fund’s reliability and make it easier to ensure the balance remains around the $1 billion mark.

Today, all SAFU assets will be converted to $USDC, bolstering reliability and stability at $1bn.

Read more 👇 https://t.co/Dggl3CdQYU

— Binance (@binance) April 18, 2024

“SAFU continues to be a core part of our responsibility to the ecosystem, and we continue to evolve to meet market conditions head-on. Today, we are transferring 100% of SAFU’s assets to USDC,” said Binance.

Onchain data also shows that the wallet address tied to Binance’s SAFU fund had swapped $738 million worth of its exchange token Binance Coin (BNB) into $800 million USDC.

Around the same time, the Bitcoin address associated with the SAFU fund transferred out $1 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC), while $1 billion worth of USDC was added to the Ethereum wallet associated with the fund.

in a 2022 blog post, binance noted $1bn assets in the safu fund

recent price increases had significantly increased the value of these holdings. seems like binance pocketed a small gain for itself

transfer in: 800m USDC
transfer out (volatile assets): $1bn in BTC, $740m in BNB pic.twitter.com/yAC9RjaL6l

— tmnxeq (@tmnxeq) April 18, 2024

The bitcoin that was sent out of the SAFU fund now appears to be held in one of Binance’s exchange hot wallets, according to blockchain transaction data from OXT.

Some market participants attributed these high-value transfers to a part of the reason behind bitcoin’s wild price swings over the last few days.

“Looks to me that the trade already occurred and drove extreme market weakness over the last few days and it should be behind us. The flows today are to settle the trade,” said pseudonymous crypto trader Wagmi on X.